37. Mason
Trystan and Bri stare expectantly at me across the boardroom table.
We’re all dressed in jeans and sweaters, as casually as one can be in three-thousand-dollar jeans and cashmere that cost double that again.
Helen has taken time off to see her family again, with my best wishes.
After next week, she might be out of a job; we all could be.
Knowing how much my name and reputation would be smeared and sullied means I will never work in media again, never work in an executive capacity or in New York again either.
How the next few days pan out with information places all of us on a sword’s edge.
This is not a project I’m taking lightly.
“Okay,” Trys begins, his latte still steaming. “Now that you’ve got your hounds digging up your evidence, do you want to tell Bri and me how this began?”
Blowing out a long breath, I steel myself to share with the two people dearest to me other than my sister and her family, and Marin, what the fuck I’ve been brooding over for the past twenty-four months.
Trys mentioned on more than one occasion about a skeleton in the closet.
If only he knew how close to the truth he was. Typical. He’s so attuned to my moods.
“This all began around two years ago. Well, it began a lot earlier than that, but this is where the drama started, for want of a better word. This is why we’re here with investigative journalists today.
And yesterday, and tomorrow.” I take a sip from my steaming cup, eyeing Bri over the rim.
She’s cautious, her face bereft of makeup and expression.
“When we were tested for a suitable bone marrow match for Ava when she got sick, there was an anomaly with the test results. I didn’t think much of it at the time but scooped everything up into a briefcase to study later.
Nic and Fraze were a mess—it was the least I could do.
My sister was at risk of losing her baby girl. ”
They nod, comprehension of how close Ava came to not spending Christmas with us finally sinking in.
She was so sick. Bri’s own sister is facing a catastrophic medical diagnosis, so this news must be hitting very close to home for her.
In the past weeks, she has cemented herself by my side; a pillar of strength, a compassionate and non-judgmental ear, and as such, a trusted confidant.
In truth, she has woven her own fibers into my own.
We are forming a great team in more than the boardroom and the bedroom.
I’ve had more than one daydream about her tied up with sail rope on the Illusion years from now.
Years… fuck. I deal in six-minute increments, chargeable time, and closing deals.
In broadcast hours, broadsheet papers, and influencer blogs.
Decision-making that was once so black and white is now melding with shades of gray.
Driven by emotional feelings I never believed myself capable of.
I am falling in love with Sabrina Broe, and I don’t want to stop myself from falling further. She might just be the one.
“Anyway, markers that Nic and Mitch had were missing on mine. Some markers I had; they didn’t. It got me thinking. So, I found a lab in the UK to cross-reference the tests. It turns out Nic and Mitch are brother and sister, but I’m not their brother.”
“What the fuck?” Trystan looks up, appalled. His usual pale skin tone has taken on an unhealthy, ashen white. “You’re not a Mercer?”
“Oh, it gets better, but I had to be 100% sure, so I kept cross-checking and researching. I tracked down and spoke to a few skeletons shaken out of closets.”
Come the day after New Year’s Day, the day Magnus is due to step down after sixty-five years of incredible servitude to media and mining among lesser performers like property, tech, and finance, I’ll have my announcement to make.
“Oh my God. How far do you expect the blast radius to carry? Are we talking a stone dropped in a pond, or a plane crashing to earth? And do you know who your father is?” He drags his palms over the surface of the table, exhaling a long breath.
I nod. “We’re talking lies and betrayal.
For decades. Get comfy, my friends. It’s going to be a long day and night.
” Neither of them move a muscle. They can see how important this is, and we only get one shot at doing it right.
“It took Ava getting sick for this fucked-up family secret to come out. I’m so thankful that she is okay now and they have her and Ramsey.
Life is good now, from what was a horrendous place.
Similarly, if Caitlin didn’t need to see a specialist, you and I might never have met Bri.
I’d be here, and you’d be out there somewhere.
But her tragedy was the Venn diagram that connected us.
That’s got to mean something special, right? ”
Bri nods, sipping her coffee with thoughtful poise.
The year is drawing to a close, and I can’t comprehend beginning another one without her by my side.
All those months ago, I warned her not to fall in love with me.
This was a contract, and she was the receiving party.
She was risking termination, and she understood that.
Terminated. Such finality surrounding that word.
It’s a word I used to throw around without consequence.
Now all I can think about are the ramifications.
The bomb I’m about to pull the pin on and lob at the feet of my family will change everyone’s lives, not just mine, or Bri’s, or Trystan’s.
Everyone. No one, Mercer or otherwise, will be immune, and my finger is itching to pull that pin.
Jesus fucking Christ, if they want a war, then I’m bringing one to them.